La Migra

Like any law enforcement agency, the Border Patrol issues a badge and a gun to its agents. The badge signifies the agents’ office and thus their authority. By that same token, the badge also symbolizes the agents’ responsibility to uphold the agency’s ethics and code of conduct. The gun has similarly twofold implications: While it stands for the agents’ right to use force to carry out their duties, it also entails restraint and responsibility in the use of that force—especially lethal force. “La Migra” describes the Border Patrol (whether the agency itself or an individual agent) as enjoying the power embodied in these objects but violating the accompanying obligations. They bring up “the badge and sunglasses” (Line 4) to intimidate border crossers. The Border Patrol first threatens to kick anyone who complains (Lines 13-15), but then the threat becomes more serious: “I have handcuffs. / Oh, and a gun” (Lines 16-17). Thus, these objects, which in normal circumstances symbolize lawful authority, here become symbols of unlawful exercise of arbitrary power.

The poem’s Border Patrol is a symbolic agent who is intent upon capturing border crossers, with little or no desire to understand the migrants’ motivations. When the agent tells the Mexican woman not to ask questions because he “[doesn’t] speak Spanish” (Line 11), his statement oozes disdain and disrespect.